The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications, and more specifically to power management during voice calls.
Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). A wireless network, for example a wireless local area network (WLAN), such as a Wi-Fi (e.g., IEEE 802.11) network may include an access point (AP) that may communicate with one or more stations (STAs) or mobile devices. The AP may be coupled to a network, such as the Internet, and may enable a mobile device to communicate via the network (or communicate with other devices coupled to the access point).
A wireless device may communicate with a network device bi-directionally. For example, in a WLAN, a STA may communicate with an associated AP via downlink (DL) and uplink (UL). The DL (or forward link) may refer to the communication link from the AP to the station, and the UL (or reverse link) may refer to the communication link from the station to the AP. A STA may communicate with an AP while in an active power mode and may conserve power in between communications by entering a sleep mode. In some cases, a STA may delay transitioning into a sleep mode after transmission or reception of a packet in case a subsequent packet is to be sent or received. For example, the STA may wait for an inactivity timeout (ITO) to expire before entering the sleep mode.
A STA may use an ITO regardless of the type of traffic the STA is transmitting or receiving. But use of ITO may keep a STA in active mode longer than necessary for some types of traffic. For example, for certain types of traffic, a STA may consume power to remain in active mode in between periodically-scheduled packets, when packets are generally not sent for that type of traffic between the periodically-scheduled packets. Consumption of power while in active mode may reduce the battery life of the STA and negatively impact performance of the STA.